7 Types Of Resistivity Instruments & Equipment You Need (& Why)

Submitted by markus on Wed, 01/18/2017 - 08:40

Have you ever prepared for a vacation, only to arrive at your destination and realize you’d neglected to pack important attire and equipment for your holiday? Recently, in my haste to prepare for a trip, I didn’t make a list and found myself in this very situation—I ended up wearing wool sweaters and jeans in an 80-degree climate.

While this may seem like a silly example—it was just a few days—not knowing what you need to bring to a survey site has much bigger ramifications. If you bring the wrong geophysical instruments and equipment for a survey, you may not get the best data, or you may find yourself unable to get the data you need at all.

We don’t want you to risk wasting money and time on a survey that is incorrect, so we’ve compiled seven types of geophysical instruments and equipment you need for an electrical resistivity survey.

The PowerSting system is a series of external high-power transmitters—5-kilowatt, 10-kilowatt, and 15-kilowatt—specifically engineered for the SuperSting. It works with multiple applications, including vertical electrical sounding, 2D electrical imaging, 3D electrical imaging, and 3D-offset electrical imaging of a 2D survey line in both manual and automatic modes.

3. PowerSting Transmitter Nodes

PowerSting Transmitter Nodes allow the PowerSting transmitters and SuperSting systems to work together to give you fully automated, high-power data. They make it possible to automatically inject a high-power direct current (DC) into the ground along a survey line for high-powered induced polarization (IP) and resistivity tomography. They are ideal for deep imaging mineral deposits and groundwater. With the 56-node system, you can reach depths of 1,000 meters.

4. Marine Systems
With the SuperSting Marine Resistivity system, surveys can be performed on the bottom of the
sea, from land to sea, or as reconnaissance surveys with an electrode streamer towed behind a boat. This system is useful for bottom investigations for dredging, pile driving, and laying down seabed cable, as well as geotechnical investigations for salt water intake or geological mapping for mineral resources. Stationary electrode cables from land to sea can be used for imaging the fresh/saltwater interface along shore line in time lapse (i.e., low vs. high tide over time).

5. Deep Ocean-Towed System
The OBEi1 Deep Marine system excels at imaging down to one kilometer beneath the water surface where imaging is otherwise difficult. This deep ocean-towed system is pulled by a remotely operated underwater vehicle, while the SuperSting is remotely controlled enhoused in a pressure vessel.

6. EarthImager 3D Or EarthImager 2D

EarthImager 3D is a three-dimensional resistivity and induced polarization (IP) inversion modeling software. It converts electrically gathered data and converts it into a 3D rendering. It is for use in geotechnical and geologic industries, including the following applications:

Outlining the shape of caves and voids.

Calculating the volume of caves and voids.

Visualizing the bedrock surface.

Pinpointing precise well location for groundwater exploration.

Outlining the shape of an ore body during mineral exploration.

Calculating the volume of an ore body during mineral exploration.

Mapping the extent of environmental spills.

Monitoring the progress of an environmental cleanup procedure.

Calculating volumes and extent of sand, gravel, or clay during aggregate mapping.

EarthImager 2D is a two-dimensional inversion modeling software for affordable resistivity and induced polarization (IP) imaging. It interprets data collected by the SuperSting Wi-Fi in just a few clicks, including between parallel boreholes or on a surface line.The data set is processed into a 2D cross-section of the earth. The processed data can be output to various types of files and can be processed into reports ready for submission to the client.

It is used in geotechnical and geologic industries, including the following applications:

Cave and void detection.

Depth-to-bedrock mapping.

Ground water exploration.

Mineral exploration.

Mapping environmental spills.

Monitoring environmental cleanup progress.

Aggregate mapping.

7. Graphite Cables

No matter your use case, you will need an appropriate cable to get the best data. We offer several cable types: